If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

sponsored links

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse

No announcement yet.

can AS400 send reports to printer that are attached to and shared by a windows wrkstn

can AS400 send reports to printer that are attached to and shared by a windows wrkstn

January 28th, 2013, 01:18 PM

we are using the built-in WiFi on the laptop and a non-ethernet connection to the printer (paralell, usb or serial). we would then use a Microsoft "share this printer" function on the laptop to allow access to the printer from elsewhere. This will work fine from Microsoft-based systems, but I don't know if the AS400 will like it. any advice?

Comment

Re: can AS400 send reports to printer that are attached to and shared by a windows wr

Hi rlg560:

It is my understanding that if you can use the printer in Microsoft land (word excel etc.) it can be setup as an I series printer (although I've never used a wifi connection).
The problem that I've experienced is only one computer can use the shared printer at a time. There seems to be a big delay in switching from MS print and iseries print and back again.

Comment

Re: can AS400 send reports to printer that are attached to and shared by a windows wr

Windows can act as a "print server" of sorts. I don't mean using Windows NEtworking's print share capability (which is awful, though, I guess I could make it work if I had to) but Windows can provide stuff like LPD support, that in turn can be used with IBM's "Remote Out Queue". Or, better, you could run a 5250 printer software on Windows that would interface with IBM i properly.

Cheaper printers are typically "host based", which means that instead of putting proper printing logic into the printer itself, the manufacturer decided to use code running on Windows to do all of the printer controls. Makes the printers cheaper at the expense of using more memory/cpu on the PC. But the worst part is, the printer doesn't speak a standard printer language, it speaks something that's proprietary to the precise hardware logic of the printer. In this case, it'd be nearly impossible to format a report properly on another system, you'd be forced to go through the Windows drivers.

So this is an important consideration when buying a printer. Figure out which languages it supports ahead of time. Make sure it supports something that IBM i (Sorry, I refuse to call the system "AS400" 13 years after the last AS400 was discontinued) supports. It doesn't cost that much to get something that supports something like PCL.

I do agree with Jamie that if your plan isn't to just straight print something, but rather to distribute reports, you're better off using something like PDF, HTML, or etc. These can be e-mailed or otherwise sent to the user, who should then have no trouble printing from their desktop.

Comment

Re: can AS400 send reports to printer that are attached to and shared by a windows wr

Thanks Jamie, GLS400 and Scott for your valuable inputs. I think writing a program to email the spools to the users mailbox is a really good way to go. Also selecting printers which support PCL is something which i will have to look for too in case the business does not want me to set up the email system.

Comment

Re: can AS400 send reports to printer that are attached to and shared by a windows wr

On a side note, you do not have to create an email system. On the 400 you just tell it what IP or DNS to send mail requests to. like your exchange server. On the email server you have to have it open to pass through email from the 400's dns or IP. Very simple to do.